We will talk about the other seven decks of course, but this week I decided to take the Urós deck for a spin. I played eight two-man queues with Pol's deck ... it's not the same experience as a "real" Pro Tour Qualifier or Premiere Event, but I still love playing the two-man queues. You get tournament experience, your opponents generally have "real" decks, and everyone is trying their hardest to win.

I originally set aside time for seven matches, but ended up running eight (more on that below). Let's see how the Urós deck ran!

I got super lucky to win the first game. Super lucky insofar as my opponent didn't kill me (I have played a lot of Ascension, and I like playing against Forests with that strategy for the most part).

He or she did play a Khalni Garden in the first game, so I assumed it was a Polymorph transformational sideboard. Regardless, I sided in my enchantment-kill package on the theory that I didn't have a lot of ways to interact with my opponent if he or she were running Polymorph, but if it didn't transform, I would be able to slam-bam quite efficiently.

Game 2 was super depressing. Though he or she got a quick Emrakul, I felt like I should be able to compete; my opponent had only 5 life and I had a Baloth on the battlefield. Almost anything off a Summoning Trap would be good enough to pull it out ... I got a, well, nothing. I whiffed.

Game 1 was not competitive, but Game 2 I felt like I had a decent draw ... two lands, an All Is Dust, two Cultivates, two Summoning Traps. I discarded twice before casting Cultivate, and then died. This was really a shame, as he or she was completely committed to the board and I had the mana to cast All Is Dust the next turn.

Zero-three? What the!?!

This was not going the way I wanted at all! I had never had so poor a showing to start in the one-on-one queues. I had to win the next four in a row in order to finish better than 50% ... and I am actually usually pretty happy when I can go four in a row with my favorite decks.

Game 1 my opponent played a Scalding Tarn and passed. The next turn he or she cast Lightning Bolt in order to avoid discarding. This game my opponent cast all four Lightning Bolts before scooping to my Baloth.

The second game was even less competitive than the one where my opponent never played a second land, if you can believe it. I correctly put him or her on Pyromancer Ascension (justifying my anti-enchantment sideboarding), and luckily my opponent went first, playing a Halimar Depths.

Finally got one! I don't care how I got one, I got one (don't pretend like you don't know what I am talking about).

The first game I milked his or her board development with Walls and Baloths. He or she naturally drew the Cunning Sparkmage and had the Fauna Shaman to set up the Stoneforge-Mystic-into-Basilisk-Collar combination. I just wanted to hit land drops and play out my creatures to buy myself some time. Then ...

All. Is. Dust!

My opponent came back with a top-decked Cunning Sparkmage, which took out something awesome (I don't remember what it was, but it cost six or more mana).

I had to cast All Is Dust for the lonely pinger before cleaning up with one of the insane big creatures that this deck plays.

In the second game I had an interesting draw. I figured I would win by using All Is Dust after an over-commitment. I drew Obstinate Baloth and decided to just try to race my opponent's Vengevine. He or she had two mana-creatures and cast Manabarbs.

In the first game I "stalled" on Eye of Ugin. It was a weird stall for most decks ... I had a bunch of lands in play but I couldn't do anything because my hand was so expensive. If it had been another land, particularly an Eldrazi Temple, I feel like I would have won. I would have had the jump in the Primeval Titan fight. Instead my opponent had a Titan, ramped to multiple Valakuts, and did me in.

I had to do very pressure-filled math with a pair of Overgrown Battlements and a Primeval Titan on the 'field. I was probably dead if he or she just played a land. I thought long and hard about if I should attack or not.

I had access to a ton of mana ... Should I tap my Battlements to cast a Terastodon defensively? Though I had a lot of mana, to cast Summoning Trap I would have to tap a Battlement. Should I cast it, wait for combat, or what?

It turns out my opponent didn't have a pre-combat land. I had to block very precisely so as to stay out of Siege-Gang Commander range. Certainly my Titan rumbled with his or her Avenger.

The dust cleared and my opponent said, "Go." I activated Eye of Ugin at the end of his or her turn; Siege-Gang Commander shot down my wounded Titan, but I got Emrakul. I think he or she might have had it if a Wall had been shot instead. There was no way to know my only land in hand (which I would have needed if he or she took down three mana with a Battlement) was Khalni Garden.

The amazing thing is that while I had a hard-cast Emrakul, I still hadn't won! Time Walk, annihilator 6—putting the opponent next to dead wasn't the same as "dead." I still cast my Terastodon defensively, essentially producing four blockers.

whew.

Even.

I had what I felt like was a powerful opening hand with tons of acceleration but only one action spell. As it was, I had a fourth turn Summoning Trap. I did not whiff ...

In the third I was just down one piece of acceleration. The terrible thing about a deck like this is that often you will have a hand that looks explosive, has some stuff to do, but ultimately generates no action. I think I had three All Is Dust at the end of this game, a Primeval Titan, and an Eldrazi Temple on the battlefield ... couldn't cast any of it and I got gobbled up by my opponents one action spell (a Primeval Titan).

Having only played the match-up twice I am not sure who is favored between Red-Green Valakut Ramp and straight Green Eldrazi Ramp, but I can tell you the Red-Green deck has the more lethal Titan. Red-Green's Titan will just kill the other deck's Titan with one attack (either one or two Valakuts in place, searching up two Mountains for as much as 12 damage), if not the opposing player.

I decided to give the Eldrazi Green deck a chance to make it to even and played an eighth queue.

The next two games were much simpler. I had a super cheap hand in the second and just hard cast two Baloths; my opponent couldn't really make me discard.

In the last game I had some enchantment removal and great acceleration. I hit Primeval Titan into Pelakka Wurm into the Butcher of Truth, always leaving mana open to drill an enchantment if need be.

Winner!

At the end of three or four hours of game play, I was up two ratings points, and had a fun run to share with you; just sorry it wasn't a more triumphant story.

This deck has lower performance than I would typically like in tournament queue testing. It has the problems most ramp decks have—you can draw all your acceleration and miss a Summoning Trap, or you can "only" draw one piece of acceleration and fail to cast a significant spell. The deck really needs two pieces of acceleration to function properly, and therefore is liable to "draw its cards in the wrong order" more than, say, Red Deck Wins. That said, you really can't argue with second-turn Emrakul, and there aren't a lot of other decks with that kind of blistering potential.

Sun Titan: Battling cleanup, the Titan can generate all different sorts of value; what about getting back Tectonic Edge multiple times?

Carbonero did not play Dauntless Escort main, but he did have it in his sideboard. This card, in combination with Sun Titan, allows the deck to essentially ignore Day of Judgment effects (even more than "just" having Dauntless Escort), plus attack into whatever it likes every turn (you can sacrifice and continually re-buy the Escort with Sun Titan).

Great to see the return of an old classic! (Or at least a "classic" from earlier in this season.) The addition of Stoneforge Mystic allows the Boros Bushwhacker decks to realize more landfall offense via singleton Adventuring Gear.

The whole point of this deck is to stick Primeval Titan to set up Valakut + many Mountains. Each attack with the Titan (forget a moment it is also a fatty amongst fatties) will set up 3-6 damage, depending on how many copies of Valakut you have on the battlefield (or are searching up with the Titan).

Most versions of Red-Green Valakutdon't play Bloodbraid Elf, or necessarily Lightning Bolt. These cards give the deck different opportunities to interact; for example, Lightning Bolt lets the deck put a hole in a Fauna Shaman that might otherwise serve to lock down the game over the course of a few careful trips between the library and the graveyard.

The deck has a very clear mana-control sub-theme. I love Lavaball Trap and I am wondering why more decks don't try it; it might not be as powerful as Destructive Force ... but it is attractively one-sided.

Just one thing Brian David-Marshall pointed out to me, in general (for when you are playing against the updated White-Blue decks): They tend not to have a full supply of the cards creature-decks hate. Two Day of Judgment and two Path to Exile are increasingly the stock includes. No different here.

Seven-and-a-half different decks across Spain's Top 8? M11 looks to be continuing one of the most diverse Standard formats in recent memory. Good luck, whether your field of battle is the next National Championship, or "just" a Magic Online one-on-one!